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Press Release

FreedomWorks Activists Storm Capitol Hill

Today over 60 activists from the Philadelphia area, Virginia and Delaware will be coming to Washington to receive formal grassroots policy training with regards to the ongoing healthcare debate before heading to Capitol Hill in hopes of swaying politicians still on the fence. The activists are expected to arrive at 10 am and will meet with FreedomWorks Vice President of Public Policy, Max Pappas for a robust exercise on the ins and outs of ObamaCare, with a strong focus on the recently released House bill, the $1.5 trillion America’s Affordable Health Choices Act.

From there the disgruntled activists will head over to Capitol Hill to lobby their respective representatives and hope to influence the pivotal-players in the debate, the Blue Dog Democrats. Fed up with politicians’ fiscal irresponsibility and a “spend and tax” agenda, the activists are missing work on a Monday to voice their displeasure with a nation-altering piece of legislation that is being rushed through Congress with blatant disregard for public uneasiness with government-run health care. The day will culminate in a small protest outside the Russell House Office Building at 1 pm.

At the root of ObamaCare will be tax hikes, employee mandates, and employer mandates, a federal council that would make decisions on benefits, community rating mechanisms to determine care, and would end private insurance through the Trojan Horse public option that will eventually crowd out private insurance.

House Democrats are already looking at tax hikes to fund this massive new entitlement. Under the proposed plan, the top marginal tax rate would climb above 45 percent, on top of state, local, and Medicare taxes. This will put the American tax rates on par with that of European nations such as France (46 percent) and Italy (45 percent).

These new taxes directly contradict President Barack Obama’s pledge to not raise taxes on anyone earning less that $250,000. “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax, not any of your taxes.”

When the so-called "public option" single-payer healthcare program was scrapped during the legislative "debate" over ObamaCare in 2009, lawmakers working on the bill created the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Program as a compromise. The non-profit co-op program is meant to compete with private, for-profit health insurance plans in the individual and small group markets. The 2010 healthcare law provided $3.4 billion in start-up funding to help get the program off the ground.

Sometimes a man’s just got to take a stand. Rand Paul did it his 13-hour filibuster on drone strikes, Ted Cruz did it in his 21-hour floor speech to defund ObamaCare, and now Mike Lee is invoking an obscure Senate procedure rule to completely repeal everyone’s least favorite health care law.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Thursday showing that undercover consumers were allowed to re-enroll in health plans on the federal ObamaCare Exchange. The bogus enrollees had outstanding document issues that should have prevented them from obtaining subsidies for coverage.

More Americans paid ObamaCare's individual mandate tax for 2014 than previously estimated, according to a new report from the Internal Revenue Service's National Taxpayer Advocate. In January, the Treasury Department projected that up to 6 million households would be subject to the tax because they did not purchase a government-approved health insurance plan.

A new analysis finds that the health insurance plans offered on ObamaCare exchanges offer a choice of 34 percent fewer health care providers, on average, than plans offered on the private market. The report specifies that:

America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade association that lobbies on behalf of insurance companies in Washington and in state legislatures, announced on Wednesday that Marilyn Tavenner, the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will serve as its president and chief operating officer. Tavenner oversaw the disastrous implementation of ObamaCare during her tenure, which, some suspect, ultimately led in her resignation from CMS in January.

The Supreme Court has now largely upheld ObamaCare, with a carve-out from the contraceptive mandate for closely held companies, the first three times the law has been challenged in the Court. Because of this, it is difficult to have much faith that the Court will ever overturn the law based on constitutional concerns. However, there is still another case working its way through the DC Circuit, Sissel v. HHS, challenging ObamaCare based on the Origination Clause.

Health insurance companies are signaling huge health insurance premium increases ahead of the 2016 open enrollment period. This is due to the droves of older and sicker consumers who signed up for coverage on the ObamaCare Exchanges, according to a report from The New York Times. Requests submitted by insurance are approved by state regulators, such as state insurance commissioners, but the proposed rates reflect a higher utilization of healthcare than expected.